Giving Hope honors philanthropists Friday

Giving Hope, Women’s Giving Circle will celebrate its 10th anniversary by honoring philanthropic leaders and volunteers who best represent Giving Hope's primary mission of improving the lives of women and children in the Canton and Plymouth communities.

The event is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at Laurel Manor, 39000 Schoolcraft, Livonia. The event will include a strolling dinner and dueling pianos entertainment. The following award recipients, who will be honored at the event, reflect philanthropic efforts in a variety of categories.

Group category

Joan Noricks and Loren Wadington and 12 other women planned and worked to establish the Giving Hope Women's Giving Circle in 2006. The others are: Terry Bennett, Betty Bloch, Shahnaz Broucek, Nancy Eggenberger, Jean LaJoy, Carla O'Malley, Karyl Neimi, Linda Radtke, Nancy Richter, Martha Snow, Jean Stenger and Ellen Tucker. As the former Canton Community Foundation director and development officer, respectively, Noricks and Wadington researched giving circles and tested the concept with local community women. The 14 charter members met throughout the summer, drafting bylaws, governance and membership framework to create the Plymouth-Canton Giving Hope organization. The official kickoff informational meeting was held Oct. 18, 2006, with 104 community women in attendance.

Family category

Marion and Jerry Rozum know all about delivering. Since 1992, they have successfully operated a heavy haul specializing trucking company, transporting robots, tooling and heavy equipment throughout North America. But they didn't stop there. They have taken their good fortune and created the Marion and Jerry Rozum Foundation, a donor-advised fund of the Canton Community Foundation for children with disabilities and special needs.

Like their private company, the Rozums' foundation delivers myriad needed services to the community. Through the Rozum Foundation, Marion Rozum has supported Camp A.B.L.E. with scholarships that have allowed children with disabilities to enjoy a summer camp experience. The foundation has also provided support for the Detroit Area Diaper Bank, tornado relief efforts through local churches, the Miracle League of Plymouth and Chicks for Charity projects in the greater Canton and Plymouth communities.

Marion Rozum is a member of Giving Hope. She serves on the board of the Partnership for the Arts and Humanities, which provides healing programs for veterans with post traumatic stress disorder, supports personal health and well-being with bicycle paths and pedestrian trails, fills a public demand for visual arts and provides an arts education center where students can learn and grow through enrichment. Rozum is also involved in the Village Arts Factory that will integrate arts, culture, creativity and well-being in the greater Canton community. One of the factory’s recent projects includes local students who started a mural on the north side of the warehouse, located just off Cherry Hill and Ridge roads, as part of a beautification project aimed at inspiring local budding artists.

Student category

The Student Leadership Council at the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools district motivates students from grades 1-12 to raise money for community needs and to support philanthropy in age-appropriate ways. One of the council’s recent philanthropic initiatives, which was assisted by an $8,000 grant from Giving Hope, supports the Students Helping Homeless Students project. The organization will work with the Journey to Housing program of St. Vincent de Paul to raise funds to provide housing for one or two local families in need.

Individual category

Lorraine Zaksek of Plymouth started the Journey to Housing program and is currently chairperson of its general committee. Her awareness of homeless community members began five years ago as the result of her work as the first conference president of the newly formed St. Vincent de Paul Conference at St. John Neumann Parish in Canton. After studying the homeless problem in western Wayne County, the group developed a "housing first" philosophy to enable families, who had been evicted from their previous residences, to reside in their own homes. To date, a total of 12 families have been placed into a home or an apartment. Journey to Housing pays for the move-in costs, furniture and 50 percent of the rental cost for the first six months, plsu provides mandatory weekly care management meetings, which include discussion on job searching and budgeting, for each family.

In addition to the designated Philanthropic Awards, Giving Hope also recognized the following local philanthropists on its 2016 Honor Roll.

Canton Township employees "Denim Days" Project, which raises funds for local community causes.

William Sabak, a former P-CCS student who organized a one-man clothing drive last winter.

Staci and Rebecca Reynolds, a Canton mother and daughter team, who led the 2016 Mother's Day Purse Project, collecting 566 purses filled with items, including toiletries, socks, scarves, books and T-shirts to aid victims of domestic abuse.

Giving Hope, Women’s Giving Circle is a donor–advised fund of the Canton Community Foundation that provides grants to address the needs of women and families in the greater Canton and Plymouth area. Giving Hope has provided more than $90,000 in funds during the past 10 years.

Giving Hope grants have benefited such local organizations as the Enough SAID campaign to help fund a backlog of untested rape kits and increase prosecutions; First Step, which assists victims of domestic abuse; scholarships for youngsters to participate in St. Joseph Mercy’s ShapeDown program to develop healthy lifestyles; and the P-CCS Clothing Bank. More than 75 local women comprise the Giving Circle, which aspires to make a positive community impact through philanthropy.